60 Minutes Overtime

Food prices soar as incomes stand still

NEW YORK - Writer Jen Singer, the mother of two teenage boys, wrestles
with her grocery list every week to keep the household budget from getting away
from her.

"I'd like the government to stop by my house, come food
shopping with me and see where the real costs are," she said.

The adage "An apple a day keeps the
doctor away" is impossible thanks to apple prices, she said.

"We go through one of these every few days," she
said, holding a loaf of bread. "It's a big part of my take home pay."

Some experts believe food inflation is greater than the government thinks

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It's is not her imagination. While the government
says prices are up 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken is up 18.4 percent, ground
beef is up 16.8 percent and bacon has skyrocketed up 22.8 percent, making it a
holiday when it's on sale.

"Oh my god!" Singer said as she spied bacon for
$3.

"The things that are going up in price are the things I
absolutely need to buy," she said. "It's the meat, it's the milk,
it's the eggs and it's getting out of hand."

Beef, chicken and bacon prices have soared

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ConvergEx market strategist, Nick Colas, said that mothers
could tell the government a lot about inflation.

"Food inflation is far greater than the government
thinks it is," he said.

But the big problem for families: Wages are not budging.

"If my income isn't going up, how am I going to keep up
with inflation?" Singer asked.

Wages are not budging as prices rise

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Median income is up only 1 percent a year. For Singer, that makes it hard to save for
college tuition - which has been rising 6 percent to 8 percent every year for
five decades.

"The price of college is terrifying and so we're looking
at cheaper schools or scholarships, I hope," she said. "You know, 'Run
faster in track.' That will really help me out a lot."

Many are concerned
that while economists paint a benign picture, middle-class families are quietly
struggling.

"The disconnect is severe, because it's the economists
that make policy but it's the people who have to live with the outcome of that
policy and that disconnect is growing to the point where I think it has to
break soon," Colas said.

Jen Singer shops carefully to try to stay within her household budget

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To economize, Singer keeps the heat down in the house.

"We might as well wear a parka around here because it
is the only way I can save money on heating," she said.

As the costs go higher and the budget battle continues, every
now and then she finds something at a great price.

Michelle Miller is an award-winning CBS News correspondent based in New York, reporting for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms. Her work regularly appears on the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley", "CBS This Morning" and "CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood". She joined CBS News in 2004.